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What if DreamWorks Pictures/DreamWorks Animation was founded in 1934?/Over the Hedge
Over the Hedge is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film, based on the characters from the United Media comic strip of the same name. Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, and produced by Bonnie Arnold, it was released in the United States on May 19, 2006. The film was produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film features the voices of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes, and Nick Nolte. This was DreamWorks' first animated film to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, which began an partnership the studio in 2006. The film earned $336 million on an $80 million budget. Plot In Chesterton, Indiana, a raccoon named RJ (Bruce Willis) is struggling to find food. Out of desperation, he went up to the cave of a hibernating black bear named Vincent's cave, and it is loaded with snacks. RJ steals the wagon, but in the process, he lost it. This wakes Vincent up. Vincent gives RJ an ultimatum. RJ would have to replace the wagon and all of its contents in one week, or Vincent will kill the raccoon. RJ knows that accomplishing this task would be impossible... unless he had a team. The next morning in a forest, a box turtle named Verne (Gary Shandling) wakes up from hibernating for the winter. He wakes the rest of his animal friends up and told them that they have to get ready for the next hibernating session. However, during Verne's meeting, an hyperactive red squirrel named Hammy (Steve Carell) notices something strange. He shows it to the rest of the animals, and they didn't know what this new tall bush was. Verne wents through the bush and found that most of the forest was torn down to make room for a suburban community called El Rancho Camelot. RJ found the family, and realizes that they would be perfect to help him get Vincent's supplies. He introduces himself and tellz him that the new structure is named a hedge. The humans have plenty of food with better quality than what the forest provides. Verne is very suspicious of RJ, but the rest of the animals are intrigued by what RJ had to say. RJ takes the animals through the hedge and into the city, showing them some trash cans. They knock the cans down and eat the food. Unfortunately, the trash cans belong to a woman named Gladys Sharp (Allison Janney). Gladyss attacks the animals with a room, forcing them back through the hedge. The next day, RJ successfully gets the animals, with the exception of Verne, to join his cause by convincing them that they can easily fill up their hibernation quota. He makes sure to not tell them about Vincent. When looking out the hedge, RJ spots a couple of girl scouts selling cookies... and they had a red wagon. RJ enlists the help of Hammy, and making it look like Hammy had rabies, RJ manages to steal the wagon and the cookies. The rest of the animals celebrates the victory, and Verne is still concerned. They eat the cookies and drink caffeinated drinks... except for Hammy. RJ would not allow Hammy to drink caffeine. For the next few days, RJ and the team kept stealing food from the humans. Two porcupines named Lou (Eugene Levy) and Penny (Catherine O'Hara) helped, along with their kids. A dramatic Virginia opossum named Ozzy (William Shatner) and his daughter named Heather (Avril Lavigne), and a skunk named Stella (Wanda Skye) helped along with Hammy. Only Verne refuses to take any part of it. Their thievery did not go unoticed. Gladys is the president of the Camelot Estates Home Owners Association, and knows that the animals would bring down the suburb's values. In desperation, she calls an exterminator. During one heist, RJ is in the process of getting the last item with Ozzy's help. The heist was successful, but that is when the exterminator, a man named Dwayne LaFontant (Thomas Haden Church) arrives. Verne sees the exterminator and realizes that they are in grave danger. The animals celebrate their victory and give RJ his own living room. RJ is happy to be accepted as a family and begins feeling guilty over hiding his true intentions from them. When RJ decides to give his new animal friends some space, he wents to check on the wagon, but Verne takes the wagon with the intention of returning everything back to the humans. The two get a fight, and during the fight, they went around the suburbs and lost everything. RJ tells everyone that Verne is responsible for loosing all the food, which Verne dodn't deny. Verne even accidentally says that the rest of the animals are too stupid to take care of themselves, which offended everyone. RJ then realizes that Verne was right not to trust him, knowing that his failed mission. Verne comes to apologize to RJ. RJ tries to tell Verne the truth, but discovers that, on the other side of the hedge at Gladys's house, is everything that RJ nedds. RJ have to keep up with the ruse. He now had a chance to get everything for Vincent. Of course, this would have been a simple heist, if it wasn't for one obstacle. Gladys have Dwayne install an illegal trap called the Depelter Turbo. They need the rest of the team to get the food and they need to get into the house, and the only way was with the collar of Gladys's cat named Tiger (Omid Djalili). So, they disguise Stella as a black cat and have Hammy turn the trap off. Once the trap is off, Stella gets Tiger to come out of the house and seduces him. Tiger falls in love with Stella, and the animals got in the house to raid. Finally, they are ready to leave. That was until RJ spotted a Pringles can, Vincent's favorite food. He went to go grab it. Verne tries to get RJ to leave it. That is when RJ reveals that he was just using them to pay off a debt. Dwayne and Gladys discover the animals. In the hubbub, Stella have no choice but to reveal herself as a skunk and sprayed the house. However, Tiger couldn't smell it, he is too smitten by Stella's beauty. Unfortunately, all of the animals with the exception of RJ are caught. Dwayne puts them in his truck, so they can be humanely euthanized, but Gladys demands that the animals were killed as inhumanely as possible. RJ gets the food to Vincent at the nick of time. Vincent is impressed that RJ was able to befriend animals just to stab them in the back. RJ, however, have a change of heart. He steals the wagon back from Vincent and wents off to rescue his new friends. Using the wagon full of food, he stops Dwayne's van and wents to save his friends. At first, the rest of the animals refuse to let RJ save him, but this time... Verne trusts RJ. He convinces them to let RJ help. So, the animals work together to get back to the hedge, while destroying Gladys's house. Once they are back home, they discover Vincent, determined to kill RJ and his friends. So, they try to leave, but on the other side are Dwayne and Gladys, trying to kill them. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. All seemed lost... but then, RJ got an idea. RJ would use himself as bait to lure Vincent into Gladys's yard, but first, he have to give Hammy caffeine. With his body filled with caffeine, Hammy is able to quickly get to the Depelter Turbo and sets it to the max setting. Hammy gets back to the hedge and Verne pulled RJ out of Vincent's grasp with a fishing hook. Vincent, Gladys and Dwayne were now in the yard together, and they got trapped. Vincent is sent to a zoo by animal control officers, while Gladys is arrested for possession of an illegal and inhumane trap. Dwayne tries to escape, but gets attacked by an overly playful dog named Nugget. RJ is deemed a hero by his animal friends, Tiger joins the group, and RJ apologizes for lying to them. Verne tells RJ that they would have helped him anyway if he told them the truth. Verne realizes they have not had a chance to forage for food until Hammy reveals that while sped up, he collected enough nuts for the group to last the year. In a post-credits scene, RJ and the group return to the vending machine from the beginning of the film and manage to take all the snacks, only to find RJ stuck inside while grabbing everything. Cast * Bruce Willis as RJ * Garry Shandling as Verne * Steve Carell as Hammy * Wanda Sykes as Stella * Eugene Levy as Lou * Catherine O'Hara as Penny * Shane Baumel, Sami Kirkpatrick, and Madison Davenport as Spike, Bucky and Quillo * William Shatner and Avril Lavigne as Ozzie and Heather * Omid Djalili as Tiger * Nick Nolte as Vincent * Allison Janney as the human Gladys Sharp * Thomas Haden Church as Dwayne LaFontant * Brian Stepanek as Nugent Two minor human characters, appearing during the dog chase scene, were voiced by Lee Bienstock and Sean Yazbeck, two participants on The Apprentice 5 as part of a reward for winning a task. In July 2002, Jim Carrey announced he would co-star with Shandling in Over the Hedge. In October 2004, however, he left the project and was replaced with Willis. Reception Box office On opening weekend, the film was in second place to The Da Vinci Code, but its gross of $38,457,003 did not quite live up to DreamWorks Animation's other titles released over the past few years. The film had a per-theater average of $9,474 from 4,059 theaters. In its second weekend, the film dropped 30% to $27,063,774 for a $6,612 average from an expanded 4,093 theaters and finishing third, behind X-Men: The Last Stand and The Da Vinci Code. Since it was Memorial Day Weekend, the film grossed a total of $35,322,115 over the four-day weekend, resulting in only an 8% slide.15 In its third weekend, the film held well with a 24% drop to $20,647,284 and once again placing in third behind The Break-Up and X-Men: The Last Stand, for a $5,170 average from 3,993 theaters. The film closed on September 4, 2006 after 112 days of release, grossing $155,019,340 in the United States and Canada, along with $180,983,656 overseas for a worldwide total of $336,002,996. Produced on an $80 million budget, the film was a commercial success. Critical response On the film-critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has received 75% positive reviews, based on 170 reviews with an average of 6.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Even if it's not an animation classic, Over the Hedge is clever and fun, and the jokes cater to family members of all ages." On another aggregator, Metacritic, the film has a rating of 67/100, indicating "generally favorable." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Critic Frank Lovece of Film Journal International found that, "DreamWorks' slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric comic strip ... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features." Ken Fox of TVGuide.com called it "a sly satire of American 'enough is never enough' consumerism and blind progress at the expense of the environment. It's also very funny, and the little woodland critters that make up the cast are a kiddie-pleasing bunch". Accolades Release Co-director Karey Kirkpatrick and producer Bonnie Arnold in 2006 promoting the film. The film was screened as a "work-in-progress" on April 29, 2006, at the Indianapolis International Film Festival,28 and it premiered on April 30, 2006, in Los Angeles. Nick Nolte, Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne, Garry Shandling, Wanda Sykes, Catherine O'Hara and Steve Carell attended the premiere. The film was theatrically released in the United States on May 19, 2006. In select New York and Los Angeles theatres, it was accompanied by a DreamWorks Animation's animated short film First Flight.The film was also screened out of competition on May 21, 2006, at the Cannes Film Festival. Home media Over the Hedge was released on DVD by DreamWorks Animation's newly formed home entertainment division and Paramount Home Entertainment on October 17, 2006. A short film based on Over the Hedge, titled Hammy's Boomerang Adventure, was released with the DVD. The film was quietly released on Blu-ray on February 5, 2019 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainmentas a Walmart exclusive, and was subsequently given a wider release on June 4. Soundtrack The soundtrack for the film was released on May 16, 2006 by Epic Records. Rupert Gregson-Williams composed the original score, while Ben Folds contributed three original songs, along with a rewrite of his song "Rockin' the Suburbs" and a cover of The Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket." Track list: Video games A video game based on the film was released on May 9, 2006. Developed by Edge of Reality, Beenox and Vicarious Visions it was published by Activision for PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Three different versions of Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts! were released by Activision in the fall of 2006: a miniature golf game for Game Boy Advance, an action adventure game for Nintendo DS, and a platform game for PlayStation Portable. Category:Alternate Reality Category:Theories Category:DreamWorks Category:DreamWorks Animation Category:DreamWorks Animation SKG Category:Dreamworks Pictures Category:DreamWorks Pictures films Category:2006 films Category:2006 Category:2000s films Category:Films based on comics Category:Paramount Pictures Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:Paramount Pictures animated films